Teen's Iraq Trip Account Delayed

Media Interest Turns Out To Be Overwhelming

January 3, 2006|By Kevin Smith and Ihosvani Rodriguez Staff Writers

Lauderdale-by-the-Sea — With a horde of reporters waiting outside his father's home Monday, the Fort Lauderdale teen who took an unsupervised trip to Iraq said a calculus exam would take precedence over telling his story.

Farris Hassan, 16, whose three-week trip to the Middle East and back brought the national media to his family's doorsteps, declined to immediately discuss his journey. Joined by his sister and two brothers, he crossed a busy Ocean Boulevard late Monday afternoon to promise more information tonight.

"I will make a statement tomorrow and everything will be found out then," Hassan told reporters gathered outside his father's condominium. "I came back, I'm pretty tired and I need to rest, and I'm preparing my statement at this time."

Hassan gracefully sidestepped questions about what he learned on his trip and whether the attention was overwhelming. One brother said he appreciated the interest in Farris' trip, but said his welfare -- at risk after a visit to one of the most dangerous places in the world -- was the paramount concern to his loved ones.

"Everyone is really glad to have him home," said Hayder Hassan, 21, who with family members met Farris Hassan when he arrived at Miami International Airport on Sunday evening. "He's tired, and he wants to relax."

With both his parents out of town, Hassan on Dec. 11 took off on a fact-finding tour that brought him to Kuwait, Beirut and eventually Baghdad, where he walked into the offices of The Associated Press on Dec. 27 and told his story. Journalists there contacted the U.S. State Department, and Hassan left Baghdad safely on Friday.

His travels have garnered international attention.

Reporters waited outside Farris Hassan's father's condo and his mother's Fort Lauderdale home for most of Monday, hoping for answers and to hear from the teen. But Monday night, the details of the past three weeks had to compete with the demands of the Pine Crest School math department, the teen said.

"I have a big calculus test on relative rates of change that I need to study for, so I have a lot of things going on right now," Hassan said.

His return to school will feature more than a calculus exam. School officials have said that Hassan, a straight-A student who skipped a week of classes to make the journey, will have to sit down with his parents and administrators to determine what disciplinary measures might be necessary.

The media crush has been hard on the family and their neighbors.

Police were called at least once as satellite trucks lined the narrow street on which Hassan's mother lives, and Hassan's mother said the constant requests for information and interviews were taking their toll.

"I'm exhausted," Shatha Atiya said. "We're all exhausted. We want this to be over with."

Kevin Smith can be reached at kssmith@sun-sentinel.com or 954-572-2009.